I was lucky enough to see Tom Pecheux “key” at three different shows. (The key artist is the one who designs the look, even though other artists working backstage may also be famous.) Tom is an incredibly well known and widely respected artist, who’s worked with every big name you can think of. He’s also Estee Lauder’s newly appointed makeup creative director, and the creative force behind their recent Dahlia palettes.

Anyway, my first “Pecheux” show was Peter Som, with MAC cosmetics. Tom explained that the collection was sweet, youthful, and playful, and he wanted the makeup to convey that same happiness. He gave the models 60s-inspired winged eyeliner, but in yellow.

He also gave them satin-finish skin, with just a hint of blush and contour to shape the face. On their lips, he used a creamy, pigmented coral gloss (the new Kissable Lipcolor in So Vain, coming out sometime in 2011). They applied the gloss to the center of the lips and blended out. There was no mascara —Tom said it would have distracted from the eyeliner.

All in all, the girls looked fresh-faced and clean, with no drama, nothing classic or old-fashioned. They looked more approachable and fun than glamorous.

I asked Tom how non-models could wear this look, and he said that a “safer” way to wear yellow might be to use black or brown liner, with yellow on top (or to pair yellow shadow with black liner). But he wasn’t opposed to anyone trying his look as-is. He essentially said, “what’s the worst that could happen? So you wash it off.”

To recap, the models were wearing:

Face and Body Foundation

Concealer as needed

Mineralize Skinfinish Natural to softly sculpt the face

Primary Yellow Acrylic mixed with Primary Yellow Chromaline

209 brush for prominent line

So Vain Kissable Lipstick

The nails were done by Zoya, a custom blend of white-pink duochrome Angel and grass-green Shawn. It looked duochrome in the bottle, but came out to a muddy green metallic on the nails.

Laurent Philippon (for Bumble and Bumble) did the hair, and when he said, “we’re going for a natural look,” my ears perked up. Nothing like learning your hair tips from the pros!

Laurent said the collection itself struck him as rather architectural, so he designed a hair look that was natural and beachy — for contrast. He and his team used a combination of Prep (a liquid conditioner) and Surf, to try to bring all the girls to approximately the same look and texture.

Curlier girls were blow-dried with fingers (no brush), to smooth the curls out a bit. Straighter girls were dried with a diffuser — or if necessary, braided, to introduce a bit of wave.